I had heard a lot of stories about North End Cycles in Elkhart IN, but they had the bike my wife wanted for the right price.
A really good friend of my step dad owned the dealer across the street. He made a good living from all the pissed off people leaving North End. They were famous for needing $2-300 after the bike was sold and ready to pick up because of "paper work problems". They just tried to scam everywhere for anything they could get.
I got other warnings from people in the area not to go there. Shoulda listened.
Saturday we drove down there because the salesman was an idiot. A weeks worth of phone calls had gotten us nowhere. He wouldn't move on a super low miles bike. We told him we didn't care about miles, we wanted bags and a shield. That was going to add $1000 to the price, he said.
The same bike with bags and a shield, but higher miles was sitting right next to the bike he was trying to sell us and he never mentioned it once.
We negotiated a price, pending our bringing in our trade. We were told at least a dozen times that $2800 was no problem, but of course they couldn't commit without seeing it. Finally we agreed on a deal that included $2500 minimum on the trade, but that they wouldn't low ball us. "That's not how we do business"
After doing some research and going over the bike very well today I told them we would take $2800, but we would just sell it ourselves if they tried to go lower. Of course when we showed up they came right in with $2500. "no problem" I said, "load it back up. We'll take them both back with us." We had some words about the reputation of the dealership and ended up leaving without their bike.
In addition they tried to sell us the stock pipes the PO had swapped out for some loud ones we didn't want for $500. When I told him they were going for $75-100 on the forums he basically called me a liar. I offered to show him. He could have gotten a nice set of Cobra pipes if he would have just swapped me in the first place. Or $100 if he would have just been reasonable.
They deserve the reputation they have. They suck. They will try to scam every last penny. Every dealer tries to get what they can, that's a given. There is a line and North End is way over it.
A really good friend of my step dad owned the dealer across the street. He made a good living from all the pissed off people leaving North End. They were famous for needing $2-300 after the bike was sold and ready to pick up because of "paper work problems". They just tried to scam everywhere for anything they could get.
I got other warnings from people in the area not to go there. Shoulda listened.
Saturday we drove down there because the salesman was an idiot. A weeks worth of phone calls had gotten us nowhere. He wouldn't move on a super low miles bike. We told him we didn't care about miles, we wanted bags and a shield. That was going to add $1000 to the price, he said.
The same bike with bags and a shield, but higher miles was sitting right next to the bike he was trying to sell us and he never mentioned it once.
We negotiated a price, pending our bringing in our trade. We were told at least a dozen times that $2800 was no problem, but of course they couldn't commit without seeing it. Finally we agreed on a deal that included $2500 minimum on the trade, but that they wouldn't low ball us. "That's not how we do business"
After doing some research and going over the bike very well today I told them we would take $2800, but we would just sell it ourselves if they tried to go lower. Of course when we showed up they came right in with $2500. "no problem" I said, "load it back up. We'll take them both back with us." We had some words about the reputation of the dealership and ended up leaving without their bike.
In addition they tried to sell us the stock pipes the PO had swapped out for some loud ones we didn't want for $500. When I told him they were going for $75-100 on the forums he basically called me a liar. I offered to show him. He could have gotten a nice set of Cobra pipes if he would have just swapped me in the first place. Or $100 if he would have just been reasonable.
They deserve the reputation they have. They suck. They will try to scam every last penny. Every dealer tries to get what they can, that's a given. There is a line and North End is way over it.
